Apple could pay Dutch double to sort double Dutch Maps

Apple’s new Map app has rightly come in for some hefty criticism this week, not that TomTom is taking any of the blame.

‘There’s not much to say on that. Our maps are good,’ MD Corinne Vigreux told me bluntly at the Paris Motor Show this week.

The Dutch sat nav manufacturer provided Apple with mapping data after signing a lucrative deal in June this year. Problem is the app still uses features from Google Maps which interfere with TomTom’s.

Some industry experts suggest Apple should give in and pay TomTom to take over the Map app reins completely, or even buy the company outright – for example smartphone rival Nokia bought its own mapping business, Navteq, for US$8.1 billion back in 2007.

But TomTom is too busy reveling in the success of its own paid-for iOS sat nav apps to worry about what’s going on in the Apple boardroom. Vigreux says: ‘If I look at the amount of in app purchases on Apple iPhones in the UK, the number of people who buy it is the highest we have in Europe at above 80 per cent, so there is a real high level of recognition from consumers. We’re miles ahead of the competition on that, so even though everyone is trying to muddy the water it’s quite nice to see we get an endorsement from consumers.’

Next week TomTom comes to Android too opening up another huge market of compatible smartphones and tablets. However, Windows Phone users will continue to miss out. Vigreux adds, “One of our close competitors Nokia is very close to Microsoft and today [Windows Phone] it’s a very small part of the market, so there is no short term plan.”

TomTom is based in Amsterdam, but built mainly around former employees of British tech firm Psion – responsible for the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) explosion in the 90s. Vigreux says: ‘It’s good if people think we’re British. The French think we’re French and the Spanish think we’re Spanish, so don’t tell them, but nearly all of us come from a great British entrepreneurial company, Psion, so most of us learned the ropes in the UK. We’ve put the whole band back together, so there is a big, strong British influence.’

Away from apps, TomTom seem to be adding to their list of car manufacturer partners by the week – Fiat and Mazda are the latest to join a burgeoning list that includes the like of BMW and Lexus who use their products. It partnered with Transport for London to update London’s Games traffic situation during the Olympics, and collaborated with Nike on its GPS Sportwatch.

In case you’re wondering, it still makes standalone sat nav units too, but admits it’s looking for the next big innovation to tempt existing owners into buying a new one. Vigreux says: ‘We still have a lot customers who prefer that as a form factor, less than before because we sold an awful lot in a very short amount of time so you are now in a replacement market; someone who says well I’ve got my product and I will replace it when there is some new innovation, something that triggers the imagination.’

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